Hello everyone, I have been reading this forum for some time, but just decided to join a few days ago because I have a bunch of questions that I need to get answered. I have been collecting US mint commemorative coins since 1986 with the release of the Liberty set. Everytime a new proof set would come out, I would purchase it, with the exception of gold coins. I was young then and couldn't afford the cost up until recently. In the past 2 years, I have gone back and collected virtually every set, both proof and UNC that the mint has released. I don't have everything yet, but I am working on it. I keep all my coins in a climate controlled safe and take them out only every now and then. Lately, I have noticed a lot of my coins are starting to tone or have specks appear on them. Some even look like they have signs of corrosion! Here is the question that I would like to hear everyone's opinion on.....Do I send these coins in to be slabbed or do I keep them in their OGP? Will slabbing help maintain the value or does it really matter? Thanks for everyone's response - this is a great forum. Joe PHP:
slab it only if you are selling them and want to gamble it. if not, all coins bought directly from u.s. mint should be at least ms-65 to ms-67 condition. unless you bought it from dealers and other collectors. that become second hand products. the quality should be changed.
Hi, you didn't say if you only have the silver coins but in any event I wouldn't consider sending in any coins that show corrosion, or have obvious scratches and marks that will lower the grade below a 69. if you are planning on building a graded set them you could send in the best coins you have and go from there. The corrosion though sounds like a problem you need to address before you place more coins in the safe, I think it might be moisture problems. You may need to change the location of the safe and see if that helps.
Elaine 1970 - the coin sets are my personal coins and I don't intend to sell them. The only times that I do sell my coins is when I purchase the three coin set with the gold. Then I usally take my loupe and pick out the best coins and put the other ones on ebay. CentDime - In this same safe, I also have complete sets of every modern coin from 1900 on, also a near complete set of Morgans and several other near complete sets of other older coins - and I don't have any form of corrosion on them???? The most common thing I have been seeing on the commemoratives is spotting. Is this considered "toning" and if so, how does this affect the value of the coin vs. an even toned coin. Keep in mind, I don't collect slabbed coins, so I don't know all the rules that go with slabbing a coin and what affects the grade. Thanks. Joe
Howdy jaceravone - Welcome to the Forum !! You've got me kind of curious, can you post any pics of the coins that have what you describe as corrosion and/or spotting on them ?
It is hard to say what the spots are without seeing pictures, but they can affect the grade of the coin depending on what they are.
Thanks everyone who got back with me. I do have a scanner, but it is going to take some tricky wiring, because I have a wireless printer system in my house.... the downside is that the scanner dosen't work unless I hook it up directly to my computer. I'll see what I can do. As far as the spots, under a 16x loupe, they look like the coin is tarnishing, but just very spotty. Not an even, gradual tone. The corrosion looks more like a rust spot. I guess I need to get these scanned in. I had a very restless night sleep last night, because I kept thinking that if I want to pass this collection down to my kids, then I probably should slab them. But that is going to be super expensive because I will only get PCGS. Keep in mind that I have nearly.....and I mean nearly every modern proof comm coins and almost all the UNC comm silver dollars and half dollars. (I am only missing about 5 proof gold coins, all the UNC gold coins and a few silver and half dollars) That's a lot of coins to get slabbed. And I'm not just going to slab just the best ones - I will have to slab them all - everything has to be the same. (this is due to my obsessive personality :goofer: ) Anyway, some more input would be great on the group's opinion. Joe
The thing is though they will not all be the same, some will grade high and some will grade lower {maybe ms67 to MS69}. I am not sure how careful you were in selecting the coins buit i would think the silver coins would only have half grade 69 so you might not be happy with the results. If I inherited your coins I would personally slab all the gold and only the lower mintage silver [under say 75,000 mintage] and sell the rest to cover the costs. Also only slab those that were visually 69 or higher. Then slowly over time fill in the rest of the missing coins, only buying slabbed ones 69 or higher. Anyway that is only my take, others here I am sure would say to leave it all as it is. Some like slabbed coins and some don't. I have all my valuable coins in slabs so that is where my opinion on this is based though.
